


Chlorine Kissed Summer Skin

by djiange



Series: Frames from Movies That Were Never Made [7]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, M/M, Minor Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:01:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28893333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djiange/pseuds/djiange
Summary: "It's not like you have much better things to do, anyway."Oh, is that so? Merlin actually has many better things to do than being tormented by a 90% naked Arthur in the swimming pool and imagining senior citizens making out in a vain attempt to keep his pathetic semi at bay.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Frames from Movies That Were Never Made [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2070306
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45





	Chlorine Kissed Summer Skin

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Frames from Movies That Were Never Made](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28255476) by [djiange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/djiange/pseuds/djiange). 



"Come on, have some fun." The culprit is now making pratish sounds as he splashes water over Merlin's not-best-pleased face. "It's not like you have much better things to do, anyway."

Oh, is that so? Merlin actually has many better things to do than being tormented by a 90% naked Arthur in the swimming pool and imagining senior citizens making out in a vain attempt to keep his pathetic semi at bay. It's a scorcher today, but all the swimming Merlin plans to achieve is dipping his big toe in the water.

"No, thanks. Me and my Pepsi are doing well." He shakes the soda can in his hand. "You wouldn't want us to taint Her Poolness, would you?"

"Hey, watch it! A single drop you will be dead." Arthur splashes again. "Stop being a child."

"Pot calling kettle black." Merlin tuts before Arthur dives into water and swims towards the other end of the pool.

Sometimes Arthur appears exasperatingly childish.

Moments like just now could be classified under "adorably juvenile" category - if Merlin has to admit - but at other times Arthur acts like a grown-arse man in a nappy with a not yet fully grown baby brain, bossing around like a regional manager, which causes everyone to feel an urge to smack his obnoxiously gigantic butt into eight pieces and definitely not in a kinky way.

In between, there are also times when Merlin can't quite put his finger on it.

Arthur talks about tits and arse with his peers, but he always has this silly innocence like a schoolboy who doesn't really have any idea what he is talking about when he tries to recall the scraps from daddy's magazines found under the mattress. Arthur also says maddening things like "Is your little bottom sore?" or "Do you know how to walk on your knees?" or "I'll have you for breakfast!" as though he was a kid show character totally free of the sensibility to any sexual innuendo. And Arthur has dated only one girl so far - Gwen, a long-time friend of his, who practically grew up with the Pendragon siblings - in spite of the urban legend of him being Hugh Hefner without the pipe.

Merlin knows Arthur isn't, you know, impotent or anything that suggests his lack of enthusiasm about sex. He knows because he's Gwen's BFF since uni, and the code of BFF stipulates that you're obliged to serve as the humanoid dump of their relationship problems. According to Gwen, Arthur is pretty fantastic actually, _but_ , might be just a tiny teeny little bit - "For the record, you are responsible for the following choice of words on your own. I didn't say that!" shouted Gwen at the same time as Merlin yelled, "A blind man can see where this conversation is going when you say 'but' in italic!" - vanilla.

Merlin suspects Arthur might be another closet case, but he has never caught Arthur drooling over his Greek-godlike footie mates like Merlin himself does.

Anyway, he fathoms it's much ado about nothing to dig into Arthur's preference, given that Arthur is either quite a late bloomer or not much of a sexual person in general. It doesn't stop Merlin from making himself a fool by falling a little deeper, however. Well, that's another story.

Pondering over this mystery, Merlin misses someone sneaking up on him underwater. Arthur breaks through the surface as he grabs the wrist of Merlin's right hand where the said Pepsi sits, dragging Merlin down until their eyes are almost level with each other.

It's a bit funny that they have never stared straight into the other's eyes and paused at a loss for words or senses, even though it seems to be a rather easy thing since they are virtually a pair of conjoined twins day in day out. Merlin often shifts his eyes first when it happens, to evade what's in Arthur's eyes. On impulse, he doesn't this time, so he sees his own moony smile and the expectant glint illuminating Arthur's pupils.

Merlin would say he never makes a move because first, you don't steal your BFF's sweetheart, which, though, isn't much of a problem now that Gwen has found herself a better one last Halloween - "Merls, baby, sorry but gotta ghost you tonight. Lance said he wanted me to see his new LED keyboard, you know what I mean!" - and second, it's highly likely their sexual life wouldn't be fulfilling, which Merlin can't allow to happen until maybe his third or fourth miserable marriage - "What? Are you considering marrying him already?" "Shut up, Gwen. You are supposed to be more narky than amused."

If there is a third reason, Merlin doesn't think about it. 

But right now he doesn't think about any of them. Because this is the epiphanic moment when he knows whatever has been pulling him back must have failed - at least he wouldn't mind spending rest of his life like a chaste Disney princess if it means all he can do is leaning in, and sealing the kiss Arthur is offering.

It feels as right as every endgame kiss scene in the rom-coms.

"I knew it! You are either in closet or a ten-year-old stuck in a massive bulk of daft muscles." Merlin grins when their lips finally part.

Arthur uncharacteristically echoes Merlin's grin, dizzy in bliss. He doesn't even scowl too much at the blatant insult. "I'm not in closet, I just don't see the point to broadcast the information that I am bisexual when it has nothing to do with my interaction with people outside my sexual life."

"You didn't even tell me!"

"You didn't ask."

"For fuck's sake, you ignoratio elenchi pri-"

Arthur swallows his unfinished "prick" - "Yes, very mature, you brat." - by kissing him again, hands marching into Merlin's swimming trunks. Cool water flows into the space created by Arthur’s warm delving hands between Merlin's squishy buttocks and his trunks. The stimulation is almost too good.

And then Arthur stops.

"Why did you stop?" Merlin opens his eyes at the sudden deprivation of joy.

"Obviously I don't have things on me." Arthur groans.

"Fantastic, trust this turnip-head to let others prepare everything for him."

"Who the hell brings condom and lube to the swimming pool?" Seeing Merlin's mouth moving, he adds immediately, "Except for Gwaine."

"Alright, then get out of the water and go fuck me in your king-sized waterbed instead."

"Jesus, Merlin!" Arthur hisses, but they both can't help chuckling a little at the unintended rhyme.

Holding Arthur's hand firmly, Merlin gives him a tug. Arthur doesn't move.

"What now?"

"I want to suck you here in the pool." Arthur looks almost bashful somehow, squeezing Merlin's hand tentatively. "Is that okay?"

Merlin doesn't know whether it is his cock or his heart going to explode right here right now. "Like you have to ask." He scoffs. "Go on, I feel like I'm gonna come any second from your hands on my hips."

Arthur tugs Merlin's trunks further down, welcoming Merlin's cordial not-so-little fellow in awe, with a mesmerized kiss on its crown for a start.

Merlin would be lying if he said this was the best head he was given, since it's apparently Arthur's first foray into pleasing a penis other than his own. But just watching _Arthur_ , the stunted man-child, down there in a position only manifesting in his fantasies, Arthur's lips around him, Arthur's tongue clumsily dancing along the slit on his tip, fingers massaging at Merlin's rim in an unsteady rhythm, devilishly eager to get inside, all sends Merlin into paradise like a SpaceX Dragon on a Falcon 9.

"God, Arthur-" _Your first blowie lesson isn't gonna last_ , Merlin tries to comment, because only a few minutes into it he's so fucking close, but all he manages is whimpered profanities and "those virginal mewls" which, although untrue, Arthur will later tease him with nevertheless.

Merlin should be offended by Arthur's spunk-covered smug face as he comes embarrassingly fast, but he couldn't bother bringing himself to care at the moment. He successfully hauls Arthur out of the pool this time and revenges on Arthur by circling his thumb and forefinger around the base of Arthur's cock and licking along the veins until his tongue meets his hand.

"And I thought you would be vanilla." Merlin purrs after they both calm down.

"Thought highly of me, eh?"

"It wasn't my fault your skull was too thick to see through."

"Takes one to know one."

"What part is unclear about me?"

"You look absolutely like the 'lie down and think of England' type, you know." Arthur buries his nose in the curls behind Merlin's ear, breath tickling Merlin slightly. "Thought you might have been a blushing damsel trying to hide your face in the pillow and bite your lip out of the shame at how good I made you feel. Or an irritating little sod who didn't want to satisfy me with the verbal acknowledgement of it."

"I'm not gonna judge this pretty specific fantasy of yours but you do realise I have more experiences than you do, right? I didn't just sit there having strawberry tea sandwiches with them if that's what you were thinking."

"Yes, I am really impressed by the fact that how much of a slag you are despite your appearance parallel with a total buffoon who can't find his own backside." Arthur deadpans. He tightens his arms in a fashion more on the uncertain side and continues, "I just thought you wouldn't be so keen on sex or, I don't know, me?"

"God, you can be such a narcissistic arsehole sometimes and now you decide to play Mr. Insecure of the century? Who isn't keen on you really?"

"Gwen, for one."

"Wait, is it what this is all about?" Merlin cranks his neck to look back at Arthur over his shoulder.

"Now who is Mr. Insecure, idiot? The best fellatio of your life just demonstrated my point perfectly." Arthur ignores Merlin's indignant "What bloody point have you made exactly?" and kisses the tip of his nose. "I thought you only liked hipsters."

"Will would be thrilled to know you called him that."

Arthur snorts.

They cuddle on the warm tiles, pool water and sweat and half-dried come sticking to their bodies.

Merlin's brain is bubbling with questions.

He wants to ask how long, ask why Arthur never talks about his sexuality, ask what Arthur is thinking of whenever he looks at Merlin and whenever he doesn't.

Does Arthur know that it was day one for Merlin, that Merlin never asks about it not because he isn't interested but because he doesn't want to pry, and that Merlin is helpless for him all the time?

Arthur muddles him up, which is the very third reason he doesn't want to think about.

Partly it feels frustrating that he doesn't really know Arthur after these years. Partly he doesn't understand why his foolish crush for Arthur stubbornly refuses to die out. He always believes it is just a whim lingering a bit longer, and will eventually fade away once he is disenchanted with the front - or backside, for that matter - of Prince Charming by the realisation that this dense, entitled, conformal Arsehole is never going to change into whatever Merlin wishes for in the love of his life.

But one never finds true love following a checklist of traits of which they are fond or which they hate, do they? Otherwise people would be able to assemble a perfect lover in a random Subway. It can't be just some bacon, lettuce, or tomato, or even a full BLT. And if it was, what would happen when bread ran out one day? How do you like a BLT without bread if you choose BLT in the first place on account of the hate for salad bowl?

The menu can go on forever. Is it about sweet lovemaking or fun bickering? Or chivalry rarely seen today? Is it the memories and journeys that sew one into the other's the origin story? Is it the uncalled-for pain that reminds life is bound to be trials and tribulations? Or is it out of habit? Idiosyncratic terms?

Is love something that makes one a better person? Or makes one do strange, stupid, staggeringly unworthy things because it drives mortals to eternity beyond reason, aesthetics, or conscience?

It is something Merlin lacks before he knows it, something that he probably can never thoroughly work out but always makes him stop, and look around, to see if Arthur is standing there, if Arthur finds his peace and happiness and the meaning of this life.

For such obscure and ephemeral creatures as humanity, no one among the billions living on this pale blue dot is in fact that special to be irreplaceable, plus this certain clotpole can be so bloody intolerable Merlin wonders if being a pain in the arse is his trademark - yet before everything, Merlin knows Arthur is the sole existence which evidences a hunger transcending every standard of the senses, the only being whereby Merlin reaches the saturation of a life once stricken with malnutrition, the particular single one that he can't find in any Subway no matter how fresh he eats.

Maybe only some predestinarian theory could explain.

"Arthur."

"Hmm?"

"I wouldn't mind if you were truly vanilla."

"Well, good to know you would like to settle for my tedium. What flavour am I then?"

"You taste like chlorine." Merlin mumbles at the verge of falling asleep, "I want to taste something else next round."

**Author's Note:**

> i guess this one could be seen as an answer why i always treat gwaine so unfairly?
> 
> it doesn't make sense but that's what love is about - listen to our merls, love makes you do strange things. if it's about fairness, about sensible choices, about pros and cons, then it's not about love but relationships.


End file.
